The main Castle in Bari was the home of Frederick II, built in 1233. This Swabian Castle also served as a Renaissance residence for Isabella of Aragon and her daughter Bona Sforza and became a playground for the artists, writers and powerful dignitaries that the two would host.
Saint Nicholas' bones are kept in the Basilicaa of Saint Nicola, commissioned in 1089 to house the stolen relics of Bari's Patron Saint. We know Saint Nicolas as Santa Claus. The legends were built around him because he saved little children from harm and gave them...

Sunday 20th May: Today we moved from Gioia del Colle to go to Conversano for the afternoon cooking class. We were ready for Angelo at 9am and then drove to Bari for a walking tour conducted by Katia. Bari was much busier on this Sunday morning than it had been last Sunday afternoon when we arrived. Katia took us first to the harbour where the fish markets were still open. We saw men tenderising octopus as the locals like all their seafood raw and much of it was on sale for eating there and then.
We walked through the old town to the...

Monday 14 May: It was very nice not to have to get up early so we didn’t. Breakfast at the Palace Hotel was a cut above what we had in Sicily so we lingered a bit and ventured out around 10am. We walked more through the old section of town, looking in on the cathedral, and around the waterfront. We will be back with Angelo for a visit later in the week. As he was picking us up at 1.00pm, we had a coffee and cake back at the hotel, collected our luggage and waited for Angelo. He is a vey nice man with excellent English and we got to know one...

Sunday 13 May: A day of traveling. We said goodbye to Flavia and the other tour members with the exception of Helen and Paul who were traveling on the same flights to Bari. We walked to the airport shuttle bus stop in Piazza Politeama to find it mainly closed off with the police everywhere and we were told that there was to be a demonstration. A bus person told us to go 100m or so further on to catch the bus but had no idea what the demonstration was about. When we did get the bus the traffic was horrendous getting out of Palermo and we...

Having now completed three months on the road the time had arrived to hand in the car keys and head off to Albania for another adventure.
Our Italian experience was extremely rewarding and although there were many scary situations the positives definitely came out on top.
It was a tad sad to farewell our hire car, she had performed admirably. The little Fiat Punto had been through situations it probably had never experienced before, especially the 'Dukes of Hazard' airborne maneuvers we unintentionally put her through.
She had been...

We are in the middle (well maybe not the middle but you know what I mean) of the Ionian sea at the moment sailing back to Athens today. Its a bit weird as the majority of folks are getting ready to disembark and we are staying on for the next leg of our journey. We've rethought our excursion itinerary and will be making changes. As everyone is on board, it makes for a different vibe on the ship. This may be a short entry.
PS: A few shots of our suite and lots of shots of leaving the port of Piraeus in Athens.

Our last port of call and I didn't even get off the ship. Brian was determined and headed off on his own and I just enjoyed not having hundreds of people around everywhere I went. The weather was spectacular and the few that remained on board pretty much took to the sun decks so I got to join a yoga class, roam and read in the library, have coffee and a chat with the barista, try my hand at some painting in the artist loft (do not ask), go to a make-up seminar in the spa, enjoy lunch on the terrace in the sunshine and have high tea and...

Took an excursion a 1 hour coach trip through the Italian countryside to Alberobello, a town in the Apulia region that forms the top of the ‘heel’ of the boot of Italy.
Thanks to the distinctive mortarless round stone houses with conical roofs, known as ‘trulli’ – the town was added to the list of UNESCO world Heritage sites in 1996. Many of these ‘trullo’ houses are topped by a so-called ‘pinnacolo’ – a sort of white cap or sphere – and all of them have curious symbols, possibly good luck charms painted on the roofs.
There was an...

It's unbelievable how smooth our travels went. Plane left on time. Transferred in Munich. Arrived in Bari. No problems with luggage or even our car rental. I kept waiting for something to go wrong but maybe that's not the kind of trip we are going to have. We seem to be on course to have a wonderful time. And it only got better. My mother is our driver and I am the guide. We got to the hotel without even fighting- kinda scary! The Palace Bari is perfect. A quaint little hotel, more than comfortable. When we check in we meet Mimma at the...

Brrrrr, Bari. 17 degrees? How do you expect me to cope with that? A jumper? Goodness me.
Italy, for the third time, Bari for the third time. At least we knew where the supermarket was. Feels good to be back in Italy. When nowhere is home (well, for a year anyway), then somewhere you've been to three times starts to feel very familiar, and that's very welcome.
I'm going to ask you a favour now. Is anyone still reading this? We're feeling a bit lonely over here so how about you guys send us a message and tell us what you're up to. Remember,...

[***WARNING*** There now follows an update related to the ferry crossing between Italy and Greece which some readers may find tedious and uninteresting. "But how will we tell it from your other entries, Angela?" you cry. Bog off.]
Between April and October most of the companies doing the Greek crossing offer a ticket option called "Camping On Board". This means exactly what it says on the tin; if you are in a motorhome (or in your car for that matter) you get to camp on board in your vehicle, just by buying the cheapest ticket. We hit the...

We checked in at 9pm, for the 11pm sailing. Once we started boarding, it didn’t go as quickly as expected; in fact it was the slowest boarding we’d had. It became clear as we neared the front of the line that the border guards were being extremely thorough when it came to the checks they were performing. We thought they were targeting specific nationalities when they went over the Bosnians and the Irish with a toothpick, but when they went for the guy from Liechtenstein in front of us, we knew we were for it to.
However, (and if Nick’s...